


Raindrops on Roses

by Ghostinthehouse



Category: Finisterre: The Nighthorses - C. J. Cherryh
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:27:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27711344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghostinthehouse/pseuds/Ghostinthehouse
Summary: Scenes from Jennie's first year as a rideror: Two times Jennie wanted to go home, and one time she actually did
Relationships: Jennie Vincint | Jennie Sabotay & Rain (Finisterre: The Nighthorses), Jennie Vincint | Jennie Sabotay & Ridley Vincint & Callie Sabotay
Comments: 12
Kudos: 15
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Raindrops on Roses

**Author's Note:**

  * For [atamascolily](https://archiveofourown.org/users/atamascolily/gifts).



**1\. Too Little Ambient**

"I'm Dan Fisher, friend of Guil Stuart's. This is Carlo Goss, out of Tarmin, and Jennie Sabotay, out of Evergreen. Stuart couldn't make it. He sent us with a message. We also have a proposal to make."

Cassivey nodded, puffing on his pipe, and waved one fat hand for them to take seats.

Jennie tucked herself down at the back, and made herself as <quiet> as she could. Anveney was scary quiet as it was, and she didn't want to be dismissed alone as just a kid when she was a rider now. She kept instinctively reaching for the ambient that wasn't there, because all her life it had been there, and now... now she was village-side, in silent, stinking, Anveney, having trudged her way in from the rider stone with the other two giving her piggyback rides when her much shorter legs needed a rest. They had put her down before they came in sight of the walls so she could walk in with a rider's dignity.

At least the lack of the ambient meant she didn't also have to listen to the <going apart> that was the rogue horse or their memories of the rogue taking out Tarmin when Dan and Carlo explained what had happened over the winter, laid out what the High Loop needed now, and offered him a share in the Tarmin properties that Carlo had inherited if he and his company fulfilled those needs. Both of them seemed to know how to talk so a deaf townsman could understand, which was a skill Jennie didn't have. Yet. And she couldn't <listen> that way with the ambient, but she could watch with her eyes, and listen with her ears, and learn from her own silent observations.

All too soon, she had to try and put those observations into practice when they brought her in to speak for Evergreen. Use words, she told herself. Act grownup. Approximate emotions on your face. She sat up very straight, and did her best, but <papa and mama> would have done better and she longed, just for a moment, to be home with them.

**2\. Too Much Ambient**

Shamesey was noisy, with a constant restless ambient that churned images over and changed them. But on the upside, there were other kids here. Rider kids her own age, that didn't recoil from a horse or an image. On the contrary, they had games to play with and in the ambient. Some were fun, like the game where you were blindfolded and had to find and catch the other players using only the ambient and your other senses. (Jennie got caught often until she learned to adapt her hiding images from <snow and evergreens> to something more similar to what was actually around her, but she learned fast) Some were less so, like competing to send the silliest (or spookiest, depending on the game) image you could come up with.

She'd bowed out of spooky sendings as fast as she could, but not before <rogue-girl and slink> crossed her mind with its associated <blood and gunfire and _wanting_ >.

Carlo, sitting watch on her a little way off, reflected the fall of Tarmin in response for a moment before he slapped it down with <still water>, and the other kids had gone pale and conceded.

Once they'd all calmed themselves down, they played the silly version instead, while Rain hung his head over her shoulder, <curious> about the game, and inside, Dan talked to the camp boss here about attracting riders back to Tarmin and the High Loop.

Because they were going to need new riders up there. Tarmin had had seven before the rogue, and the sole survivor couldn't be everywhere, even with a partner. Shamesey, with its huge camp and its need to thin out the crowd, had seemed the ideal source for them when they talked it over before they left home. Left Evergreen.

She missed it so much, and <mama and papa> and the quiet where the barracks was far enough from the den that she could play without worrying about upsetting the horses, unlike here.

<Jennie crying> Rain sent, lipping at her hair with concern and leaving nighthorse slobber sliding down her ear. <Bacon. Cookies. Warm den.>

She tamped it down hard. She'd learned that quickly here too. To sit quietly and silently and smother the feelings before they spread too far. "I'm ok," she said, and imaged <fish in a rider's jacket> to prove it.

**3\. Just the Right Amount**

She came home riding escort on the last convoy up before winter, despite getting more sideways looks from the truckers than any of the other riders. Guil Stuart was convoy boss for the trip, with Tara Chang, and Dan, and Carlo, and none of them had doubts about her and Rain.

Papa came out to check with the convoy boss what the schedule looked like. The truckers were taking advantage of being parked on the flat ground in front of Evergreen's gates to do last minute checks on the brakes and the cables, while the villagers helped to unload the precious upward cargo and load the downward cargo in its place.

Rain all but danced on the spot when they spotted him, while Jennie sat very upright on his back, trying her best to look very grown up, and holding tight to the <flower> calm sending her parents had taught her. <Flower with raindrops clinging to the leaves and petals.>

Other calm sendings joined her effort to hold the ambient steady. <Still water> and <sunlight through trees> and <evergreens>.

<Staying overnight,> Stuart sent him. <Jennie wintering here, Randy coming with Carlo, convoy moving out soon after dawn.>

"Randy's bonded to an older mare, maybe a month back. Name of Molly." <Mollyfingers in a High Wild meadow.>

"He can take Jennie's place for the downward leg then."

Papa nodded, his gaze sliding towards her as if the mention gave him permission to notice her. She grinned back at him, eyes full of delight, and Rain caught the mood and kicked up his heels, pulling her attention back to her horse. Slip grumbled <boss horse, strong male horse> and shoved his nose at his rider, <wanting scritches>. He got a pat for his troubles.

The moment the townsfolk and truckers were gone, Jennie slid off Rain and hurtled towards Ridley as fast as her nine year old legs could carry her. <"Papa!">

He caught her up in his arms and swung her round. "Welcome home, Jennie-cub!"

"I missed you and <mama>, so much." Jennie hugged him tight. <Home> hit the ambient hard, followed by a roil of places and people, sights and smells and images that flickered too fast to catch much of anything. "I have so _much_ to tell you."

<Flowers everywhere,> he sent, half-teasing her, half-reminding her to calm things down around the horses. <Flowers popping out of the boards, nodding as riders pass.>

She giggled. <Happy flowers, growing by still water.> she replied, coming back to her calm sending.

Papa nodded, and looked up to see the other riders watching and grinning. "Let's get you all in and settled. We can talk over dinner."

And Jennie, smiling, slid her hand contentedly into his, and led the way to the rider-gate, and home.


End file.
